The University of Texas at Dallas

Contemporary Issues in Telecommunications

MIS 6329
Spring 2006
Instructor: Professor Sumit Majumdar
Time: 5.30 to 6.45 pm
Tuesdays and Thursdays

Overview

The goal of this course is to introduce students to issues of public policy and
business strategy in the telecommunications sector.

The course will address those issues that have arisen as a result of the development
and convergence of technologies such as radio and television broadcasting, cable and satellite
television, wire line and wireless telephony, as well as most critically the Internet.

There is a continuous interplay of ideas between the regulatory dimension and the
strategic dimension, particularly as regulations have a very large impact on the way firms in
the communications industry operate. Because of this interplay, the evolution of the
telecommunications sector is continuous. What was true four years ago is not true today and
numerous opportunities exist for new firms to enter the various market spaces within the
sector.

Coupled with the regulatory-strategy interplay, there are continuous technological

advances taking place. As a result the playing field for firms is changing by the idea. When
the emergence of economies such as India and China are taken into account, then the world
becomes even more complex but much more interesting.

At the end of the course, the student can expect to have a very detailed
understanding of the historical development and underlying policies of current regulatory
schemes, and the many contemporary issues in the field of telecommunications. A goal is to
be comprehensive in coverage, so that regulatory and public policy issues are considered. But
equally important is to know what firms do, how do they behave, how should they behave
and what happens when they behave in certain ways. Thus, at the end of the course students
will have also acquired skills in formulating approaches to business situations that take the
various complexities of the industry into account.

Instructor Contact: Phone 972 883 4786

email: majumdar@utdallas.edu

Times: Tuesday and Thursday 5.30 to 6.45 pm

Room: 2.803
There are a number of required readings. These are clearly marked. There are also a number of
supplementary readings. The course pack contains a variety of items – extracts from books, articles
from academic journals, articles from the popular press, working papers written by various
individuals and government reports.

Other Readings: Handed out as and when necessary

Course Requirements

• My approach to teaching is interactive. I expect students to have read the materials

before the class and actively participate in the class. Students are expected to work in
groups and make presentations of various readings throughout the term. The in-class
and day-to-day work will account for 50% of the grade.

• There are a number of required readings in the course pack. There are also a number
of supplementary readings that I have included in the course pack. Going through
these will provide students with a full view of what is contemporary in the
telecommunications sector.

• For every class I will nominate a group to prepare the readings for that day and make
a small presentation. Depending on the number of students, there can be several
presentations made by each group or only a few such presentations.

• Thus, there will be several in-class presentations based on assessment of the various
readings that have been included in the course pack.

• There will be 1 final group paper which will account for 50% of the grade.
 Table of Details

Class # Day and Theme Readings

Date
1 Tuesday Introduction Ø Description of the course
January 10
2 Thursday Past and Ø Chapter 2 – Historical Overview – from Handbook of
January 12 present Telecommunications Economics
Ø Brookings Institution Policy Brief – Uncertain future
3 Tuesday Present and Ø Boom and gloom in the global telecommunications industry, by
January 17 future Joe Z. Cheng, Joseph Z. Tsyu, Hsiao-Cheng D. Yu
Ø Communications technology and its impact – David Farber
4 Thursday Features of the Ø Chapter 3: Network Economics from Handbook of
January 19 industry Telecommunications Economics Volume 1
Ø Chapter 3 – Bandwagon Effects – from Handbook of
Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
5 Tuesday Features of the Ø Mapping the evolving telecoms industry: the uses and
January 24 industry shortcomings of the layer model, Martin Fransman
Ø Vertical structure of the industry – Jackie Krafft
6 Thursday Features of the Ø Chapter 2 – Emerging network technologies - from Handbook of
January 26 industry Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
7 Tuesday What customers Ø Chapter 4 - Telecommunications Demand Characteristics – from
February 7 want Handbook of Telecommunications Economics Volume 1
8 Thursday What customers Ø Deconstruction of the telecommunications industry: from value
February 9 want chains to value networks by Feng Li and Jason Whalley,
Telecommunications Policy
9 Tuesday Changing Ø Chapter 4 - Platform competition in telecommunications from
February 14 nature of Handbook of Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
competition
10 Thursday Policies and Ø Chapter 9 Interconnection Practices – from Handbook of
February 16 behavior Telecommunications Economics
11 Tuesday Policies and Ø Bottlenecks and bandwagons: access policy in the new
February 21 behavior telecommunications Gerald R. Faulhaber – from Handbook of
Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
12 Thursday Competitive Ø Chapter 15 Local Network Competition – from Handbook of
February 23 behavior Telecommunications Economics
13 Tuesday Structural Ø Is structural separation necessary – Robert Crandall and J. Gregory
February 28 separation Sidak
14 Thursday Separation and Ø CLEC experiment: anatomy of a meltdown Larry F. Darby, Jeffrey
March 2 unbundling A. Eisenach and Joseph S. Kraemer
Ø The fragmentation of America’s telecommunications system: the
operational implications of network unbundling by Joseph H.
Weber
15 Tuesday Alternative Ø Inter-modal competition in local telecommunications markets by
March 14 competitive David Loomis and Christopher Swann
models Ø Service versus facility based competition by M Bourreau and P
 Dogan
16 Thursday Broadband Ø Broadband communications by Robert Crandall from Handbook of
March 16 Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
17 Tuesday Broadband Ø The Many Paradoxes of Broadband Andrew Odlyzko
March 21 Ø Optical networks and the future of broadband services by Pedro
Fereira, William Lehr, Lee McKnight
18 Thursday Broadband Ø The bandwidth capital of the world
March 23 Ø Broadband benefits and problems by Lucy Firth and David Mellor
Ø Lessons from broadband development in Canada, Japan, Korea
and the US by Robert Frieden
19 Tuesday Internet Ø Digital Tornado: The Internet and Telecommunications Policy by
March 28 Kevin Werbach, Federal Communications Commission, Office of Plans
and Policy, 1997
20 Thursday Internet Ø Geography of the Internet by Shane Greenstein from Handbook of
March 30 Telecommunications Economics Volume 2
21 Tuesday Internet Ø Competitive advantage of broadband Internet by C Lee and S
April 4 Chan Olmstead
Ø A horizontal leap forward by Richard Whitt
22 Thursday VoIP Ø Internet telephone service by Robert Atkinson
April 6 Ø The diffusion of Internet telephony by Nicola Corrocher
23 Tuesday Wireless Ø Supercommons: Toward a Unified Theory of Wireless
April 11 Communication Kevin Werbach
24 Thursday Wireless Ø A value chain model for mobile data service providers Phillip Olla,
April 13 Nandish V. Patel
Ø Analyzing technological threats and opportunities in wireless data
services Gert T. du Preeza, Carl W.I. Pistoriusb
25 Tuesday The future of Ø Wireless Internet access 3G or WiFi by W Lehr and L McKnight
April 18 wireless Ø Software radio by W Lehr, F Merino and S E Gillett
Ø Internet versus mobile in Japan by K Ishii
26 Thursday Summing up Ø Presentations
April 20